And Other Kitchen Adventures

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Healthy and…Not Healthy

Today has been like cooking and baking heaven. I came down with a nasty cold this past week and today I’m mostly just feeling like I have a mild sinus infection. At least I am most likely not contagious anymore.

Feeling restless after being in bed or on the couch for so many days in a row, I decided to take a shopping trip. And guess. What. I. Found. For $200.

Isn’t she beautiful? I named her Sophia. She is the kitchen baby I’ve been waiting for for years. So of course I wanted to test her out. However, I needed to eat something sensible first.

I’ve been trying (and sometimes failing) to eat very healthy. Although I sometimes make a slip, I have been doing a better job lately than I was doing before. Now all I have to do is get over this cold and get back to working out. Anyway, my healthy dinner of choice tonight was:

Vegan roast

In a stoneware or other baking pot combine:

1 sweet potato, chopped

2 apples, cored and chopped

A couple handfuls of brussel sprouts, sliced or shredded

1/2-1 C walnuts

Olive oil, water, salt, and pepper

As for the olive oil, I don’t know how much I added because I was trying to open a new bottle and it sort of splashed everywhere. So add enough that things don’t stick to each other or to the pot, add some water just to coat the bottom of the pot, and toss everything together with your hands.

Bake at 350 F for about 50 minutes or until sweet potatoes are tender. Should provide a few meals’ worth of food. How many depends on if you want to eat the whole thing as a meal in itself, or serve it to the side of something else, like I did. I made a mix of black and brown rice, put goat cheese on it, and served it to the side of this dish.

Delicious, especially with spice tea!

And then…there was Sophia. It was time for a trial run. After searching for a while for “healthy” baking recipes, I resolved that there’s no such thing – probably not even bread – and lost hope. And then I found this recipe for two white vanilla cupcakes and decided to make it!

That’s right. Two cupcakes. Just two.

I could not be more pleased with Sophia’s performance. Seriously, minimal mess, and if you know me, that’s saying something. The only thing I altered in the recipe linked for you above was that I added a level 1/4 tsp baking powder instead of heaping. And I’m glad I did that because I wouldn’t have wanted them to blow up any more than they did:

While they were baking, I made up some quick goat cheese frosting. Goat cheese is a healthier option than cream cheese and tastes about the same, so basically this is cream cheese frosting.

Goat cheese vanilla frosting

2 Tbsp butter

1 Tbsp goat cheese

1 cap full of vanilla flavoring

Powdered sugar to proper texture

Honestly, I’m not entirely sure how much powdered sugar went in there. I just dumped it in until it looked and tasted right.

Once the cupcakes were no longer hot (I was too impatient to wait until they were cool), I decided to try my piping skills, which really need practice. I am not good at piping. But I’ll never get better if I don’t keep doing it. I know you’re supposed to wait until your cupcake is totally cool, but I was going to eat it immediately, so I didn’t really care if the frosting melted a little. This is how the first cupcake came out:

I got so excited that I forgot I was going to put gold sugar on top. Sometimes, when a perfect cupcake is sitting in front of you, you kind of lose your mind and you just eat it. There are no “I took a bite” pictures. I ate the whole thing in a vicious frenzy without pausing to even look up. It was disgusting. I mean, my display of eating was disgusting…the cupcake was freaking delicious.

And the cake itself! So fluffy and wonderful! It’s the best cake I’ve made here so far!

Here’s the one for tomorrow:

I actually remembered the gold sugar this time. It’s sitting in its adorable little cupcake carrier, and now it’s waiting in the fridge for me to eat it tomorrow at work.

I know I’m supposed to be eating healthy, but sometimes life happens. Sometimes you have a Game of Thrones marathon and your brew buddy brings pepperoni pizza and you eat two slices. Sometimes you buy a KitchenAid and you have to try it out so you make cupcakes. The key is this: don’t keep the leftover pizza in your fridge, because you will eat it. Don’t make more than two cupcakes at a time, because you will eat them, unless you are intending to freeze the rest.

As an update for the banana bread, I made some with my cousin around Thanksgiving. I tried kicking the oven temperature up another 25 F, but the gooiness problem actually got worse! Maybe I actually need to bring the temperature down a little…? I will have to try again!